Saturday, April 10, 2010

The association's web page, launched in late 2008, describes 64 158 of the more than 200 varieties that grow here, including many heirlooms. It lists orchards, recipes, and its own set of links, and offers other information to the hungry and curious.

If you'd like to know where to buy some of these apples, the "find a farm" search will let you discover, for instance, that Esopus Spitzenberg is available from Champlain Orchards in Vermont. Unfortunately, right now searches on too many of the varieties listed produce empty results.

Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 1831 and famously found a nation of civic groups. In keeping with that tradition, the association provides services for its member farms and the apple-eating public, including supermarket promotions, an annual meeting, a lending library, and a newsletter, the McIntosh News.